Standard Media Group is an American broadcast and digital media company based in
Nashville, Tennessee. Standard Media was founded by Deborah A. McDermott, who serves as the company's
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
. Previously, McDermott was the
chief operating officer of
Media General and
CEO-president of
Young Broadcasting. Between 2012 and 2017, McDermott and her team led the acquisition of more than 90 television stations and helped grow Young/Media General from a $220 million regional TV group to a nearly $5 billion media company. In 2017, Media General was acquired by
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
for $4.6 billion.
On May 16, 2019, Standard Media announced plans to purchase two
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
-affiliated television stations from
Citadel Communications for $83 million. The stations,
WLNE-TV in
Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
,
Rhode Island and
KLKN
KLKN (channel 8) is a television station in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Standard Media, the station maintains studios on 10th Street south of downtown Lincoln and broadcasts from a transmitter located near Ut ...
in
Lincoln,
Nebraska, have been operated by Citadel since 2011 and 1996 respectively. The company announced the acquisition of
Waypoint Media and its affiliated companies in November 2019. The Waypoint deal collapsed in January 2021.
In November 2020,
Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that they would sell
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate
KBSI
KBSI (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for Southeastern Missouri, the Purchase area of Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, and Northwest Tennessee. It is own ...
and
MyNetworkTV affiliate
WDKA
WDKA (channel 49) is a television station licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, United States, serving as the MyNetworkTV affiliate for Western Kentucky's Purchase region, Southern Illinois and Southeastern Missouri, and Northwest Tennessee. It is own ...
in
Paducah, Kentucky, to Community News Media (a subsidiary of Standard Media) for $28 million, in a transaction that closed in 2021.
On February 22, 2022, a partnership of
Standard General
Standard General L.P. is an American hedge fund headquartered in New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Soohyung "Soo" Kim and Nicholas Singer with seed capital from Reservoir Capital Group. Since 2013, Soo Kim has been the Managing Partner and ...
and Apollo announced their intent to acquire
Tegna; Apollo will hold non-voting shares in the company. As part of the sale, Standard General will sell Standard Media to
Cox Media Group, which will also acquire Tegna's stations in Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin (including
WFAA
WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...
,
KHOU, and
KVUE
KVUE (channel 24) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Steck Avenue just east of Loop 1 in northwest Austin, and its transmitter is located ...
).
WFXT in Boston will then be divested to Standard General.
The sale was approved by Standard General and Apollo Global Management on May 17, 2022.
Stations
References
External links
Official websiteKBSI WebsiteWDKA WebsiteWLNE WebsiteKLKN Website
{{COXMG
Television broadcasting companies of the United States
Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee
Mass media companies established in 2018
Announced mergers and acquisitions